Pages

3/28/2010

March 15, 2010 Pit n Pole, Rush Valley, West Desert, Utah

I have been fighting a nasty cold that turned into laryngitis and bronchitis and I had parent teacher conference this week so I haven't had a lot of time to get caught up here. Well, hopefully today resolves that. I almost went out in the backyard with my 8 inch reflector/dob but I still was feeling up to snuff. I want to get some live moon crater sketching in and some double observing. That will have to wait til the end of April though.

My observing location this night was a local place called Pit n Pole, found in the middle of the Rush Valley in Utah's West Desert. It's about halfway to the Dugway Proving Grounds, not an area you want to go to and is on an old lake bed. It can get humid there, as in most places in Utah in the fall, winter and spring (freezing frost). Tonight though I had no such issues, wonderful weather.

Very dim galaxy requiring a dark site and dark adaptation to see. O'Meara's finder directions are okay but I used my Sky Atlas 2000 on this object which served me better.
The galaxy is a face on mixed spiral with a small but bright inner core. Averted vision shows the bar and a diffused outer halo. The bar appears to run SW to NW.

NGC 2964 is a dim spiral galaxy. Another not to see at home in an urban sky or even in an orange bordering yellow zone. A dim core is visible which is brighter only slightly more than the halo around it. Using a rapid breathing technique does bring out more of the shape of the galaxy with a very faint hint of an arm. The arm curves west to south-south-east. Not an object I will spend a lot of time with or sketching. NGC 2968 another galaxy is also viewable in the FOV so I included it in the sketch.

This spiral galaxy is only viewable with averted vision at a dark site. NO way I could get this one at home I feel, maybe just a hint but that would be all. It is a grayish blob with no details nor any core visible. Core is just a shade darker (not much then the halo. Possible dark band on the west side of the galaxy as I study it more with time.

This is a faint spiral galaxy that appears tilted but face on. It may be a dust or dark lane that is riding across it. Core is SE and is bright and large sitting in the dust lanes. The more I observe the object, the more detail comes out. The dust lane is disturbed with mottling showing a possible dark lane running through this galaxy. I would confirm it visually as a dark lane and astro images confirm this as do my observing friends. I do like how I captures this in the sketch.

NGC 3193 is a small elliptical galaxy just east-north-east of NGC 3190. It is a rather bright at my viewing location here at Pit n Pole, and sits next to a ninth to tenth magnitude star. It is a dull white with no discernible features at 92x. This elliptical does provide a nice contrast with NGC 3190 though.

NGC 2903 has a bright inner core that is starlike with averted vision. Dust lanes are evident and there is a strong halo near the core that diffuses out. Two arms are evident. Excellent galaxy to examine, best object seen of the night. Messier overlooked this one in making his catalog though three of the comets he discovered were relatively close to it. At the dark site I could easily discern the puff of smoke in the finder at 9x50.

After NGC 2903 I knew I had to leave since I had to get to work. The sky was too good that night not to go out and I have no regrets. I did have to take a nap the next afternoon after getting done with teaching but I can do that, observe on a night before work knowing I have prepared and planned and then go and teach, not stay late that day and head home and take a nap.